Saturday, March 21, 2009

congratulations + good luck

For those of you who may be wondering, the AKC Pointing Breed Gun Dog Championships are currently taking place in Danville, VA. Here's a picture of the top-placed vizsla from the Retrieving stake -- Clinton + Valerie Sails' DC/AFC Bitteroot Semper Fi Cutter (aka. 'Cutter) -- who ended up taking 4th overall in the retrieving stake. As the reporter described their brace: "This was a fun brace to watch. Both dogs were fast on the ground and displayed a natural ability to run to the front. Cutter had two finds and a nonproductive late in the brace. Maggie also would be credited with two finds and a nonproductive. Both finished their time with plenty of gas in their tanks."

The non-retrieving stakes started this morning. We're rooting for all the vizslas that Bob Seelye is handling -- Greta, Boone, and the maniac known as Grasshopper -- but there's a special good luck prayer going out to Joan Heimbach's DC Fieldfire's High Octane (aka. 'Octane'). He's probably not going to run till the middle of next week. All very exciting.

*******

In other news: I have my first horse-riding lesson in 25years tomorrow. I'll keep everyone posted.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulation Katie and Matt.

Larson said...

Hi Andrew - I couldn't find a way to email you, so I'm just going to leave a comment here.

My wife and I rescued a Vizsla with serious health problems that ultimately died of an auto-immunity problem. After thinking hard about what breed of dog we thought would fit our family best, we found ourselves back at the Vizsla.

We'd really like to get another vizsla, but my wife really doesn't like the idea of getting a dog sight-unseen. She'd like the opportunity to meet the litter and pick out the one with the best personality. I'd really love a dog with strong hunting instincts (and bloodlines).

It'd be great if we could find a reputable vizsla breeder with good bloodlines in the Northwest (We're in northern Idaho). If you could recommend anyone in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, or even Wyoming - we'd really like to get in touch with them. What I'm hoping we can do is put a deposit down to get first pick of the litter, then drive out with my family as soon as they're ready to go home and pick one out. Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

I'm pretty sure Clint Sails' dog was bred by a guy in Idaho, Paul Jay Bernhardt, but the email I found for him didn't work and the phone number I've left a message on hasn't gotten back to me. Any way you could put me in touch w/Clint or Jay (or someone else in this area)?

Thanks,
Larson

Andrew Campbell said...

Larson:

I would encourage you to contact the folks at the Puget Sound Vizsla Club for breeders in the Northwest. There are some nice individual dogs in that club I know about, but they may well have a breeder referral service.

Please also leave another comment with your e-mail address in it. Then we can have more extended conversation. I will delete the comment so that information isn't public.

Thanks for being in touch.
Andrew